April 13, 2012 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Toughie 754

Toughie No 754 by Elgar

Double Trouble!

Hints and tips by Tilsit and Crypticsue

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BD Rating – Difficulty ****Enjoyment *****

Greetings from the Calder Valley! The lovely Crypticsue was at a loose end today and kindly offered to tackle the Downs for me. You simply cannot refuse an offer like that so we have a review that’s in keeping with the theme of the puzzle. The Toughie Tormentor Supreme Elgar is back with a fun puzzle that is packed with an awful lot of thematic material. One of the hallmarks of a great puzzle is that it draws you in and this one did it in style. I personally zipped through the NE and SW corners and then hit a brick in the NW corner. Not helped by only one way in with the design of the grid, I then found it quite tough and needed a prod from my colleague to get in.

Crypticsue writes:- “Greetings from East Kent too! Don’t tell the boss (currently on holiday) that I was at a loose end – I enjoyed this puzzle so much first thing today that I welcomed the chance to have double the fun – I put dots by the clues I like and my newspaper is quite ‘spotty’ today. I was only really held up by parsing 1a but luckily Tilsit came to my rescue. Thanks to him and Elgar too.”

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DT 26839

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26839

Hints and tips by Gazza

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BD Rating – Difficulty **Enjoyment **

Today is Friday the Thirteenth so was this to be an omen for a devilishly difficult puzzle? Well not really – this one is well towards the easier end of Giovanni’s range, although as usual a little bit of general knowledge is very helpful. I can’t say that I enjoyed it a great deal, but I’d like to hear your views.
If you need to see an answer just highlight the space between the curly brackets under the clues – if you’re using a hand-held device then some assistance on how to do the revealing can be found in the FAQ.

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DT 26834

Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 26834

A full review by crypticsue

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BD Rating – Difficulty */**Enjoyment ***/****

For me this was one of the best Saturday Prize Puzzles for some time.   An enjoyable solve with a very nice mix of clues and, for me,  double the fun as it was my turn for the review.   Thanks very much to Cephas for a great start to Easter Saturday.

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